November 18, 1921] 



SCIENCE 



493 



Thirteen years ago, the writer described 

 an experiment in which the result was the 

 direct opposite to that called for by reading 

 on it one of the most prominent of the laws 

 stated by Maxwell. The proposed paper de- 

 scribing it was rejected by one of our lead- 

 ing societies on the ground that if true 

 (which was very easily demonstrated) it was 

 such a serious matter to refute one of Max- 

 well's laws that it ought to be kept a secret! 

 It is needless to say that the writer published 

 it; broad-minded electro-physicists have ac- 

 cepted this correction of that law. 



Let us hope that our younger physicists 

 will be more progressive and will develop 

 the true scientific spirit of desiring to be 

 corrected when it can be shown that what 

 they teach their students is wrong. 



Carl Hering 



Philadelphia, 

 November 1, 1921 



THE SCIENTIFIC BUREAUS OF THE 

 GOVERNMENT 



To THE Editor of Science: Since my re- 

 turn to Washington from my summer's field 

 work my attention has been called several 

 times to circulars which have been sent 

 broadcast throughout the country by Mr. 

 Arthur MacDonald, The Congressional, Wash- 

 ington, D.C., recommending the reorganiza- 

 tion of all of the government scientific 

 bureaus under the direction of the Smith- 

 sonian Institution. While the institution ap- 

 preciates the confidence in it implied by his 

 suggestion, I desire to point out that his 

 scheme is entirely impracticable and was not 

 suggested or authorized by the Smithsonian 

 Institution, with which Mr. MacDonald is 

 not connected in any way. 



I shall be glad if you will have the good- 

 ness to publish the above in Science, in order 

 that your readers may understand thoroughly 

 that the institution is in no way responsible 

 for this propaganda. 



Charles D. Walcott, 



Secretary 



The Smithsonian Institution, 

 November 5, 1921 



QUOTATIONS 



MEETING OF THE AMERICAN ASSOCIATION 

 IN CANADA 



The American Association for the Ad- 

 vancement of Science is to hold its annual 

 meeting in Toronto this winter. The rules 

 of the association, recently revised, give the 

 term " American " a Continental instead of 

 a national connotation, so that the visit to 

 Canada will be regarded as a normal rather 

 than as an extra-territorial event. There is 

 thus a departure from the constitutional pre- 

 cedent of the British Association and of its 

 French and German parallels. These bodies 

 are national, although they welcome foreign 

 guests, and have occasionally paid visits to 

 foreign countries. Were the matter paliti- 

 cal, diificult questions might arise with re- 

 gard to the proposed visit of the British As- 

 sociation to Toronto in 1924. The former 

 visits of the British Association to Montreal 

 and Toronto, and later to South Africa and 

 Australia, were regarded as not different in 

 kind from visits to Edinburgh or to Bourne- 

 mouth. The formation since then of a South 

 African Association for the Advancement of 

 Science would certainly not place any ob- 

 stacle in the way of another British visit to 

 the Cape. The inclusion of Canada in the 

 American sphere similarly should not affect 

 the prospects of future visits of the British 

 Association. It is all to the good that science 

 should prefer geographical to political fron- 

 tiers. We confess to a feeling of envy, how- 

 ever, when we read of the concessions made by 

 American railways to science. The utmost ef- 

 forts failed to extract from the British rail- 

 ways such reductions in fare to members of the 

 British Association going to Edinburgh as 

 they readily concede to pleasure parties and 

 week-end excursions. The railroads of Amer- 

 ica are acting differently. Reduced rates for 

 visitors to the Toronto meeting have been 

 granted by all the railways of Canada and 

 by those covering practically all the Ifew 

 England and Atlantic Coast States down to 

 Virginia, and by those serving Ohio, Indiana, 

 Michigan, and Illinois. Other concessions are 

 expected, and so far as the railway journey 



